As a young apprentice carpenter,
Tom learned the value of putting a hard day's work from the craftsmen he met on jobsites all over Texas. Tom was a carpenter from an early age and had a deep respect and affection for those men he met and who were willing to mentor a young man in the trades.
After finding his gift of art in his early '30s, Tom wanted to create
bronze sculptures of those tradesmen who were heroes to him both to reminisce and to capture in bronze those fond memories from that earlier time in his life.